A tiltable panel assembly of the type with which the present invention is concerned is described in European patent document EP 0 059 859. The panel in this assembly is bent into an outwardly convex shape.
In order to ensure that the panel can be drawn in a water-tight manner against the frame and can be sealed by the sealing strip around the opening in the frame and in the roof of the automotive vehicle, considerable closing force must be applied to ensure that the panel will be drawn uniformly against the seal in the frame. Indeed, the closing force in this case must be sufficient to bring about an elastic deformation of the panel.
The panel closing element in this earlier system is a toggle closure which is provided at an edge of the panel opposite an edge along which two hinges are provided The known toggle closure has two closure parts which enable a secure sealing-closure position of the panel to be achieved although at the expense of a high closing force.
The high closing force is a function of the nature of a toggle closing since the toggle closure generally has a deadpoint position which must be traversed by application of the force maximum before this force maximum displaces the closure beyond the deadpoint position. As a consequence, the force maximum can be significantly greater than the closing force required for secure closing of the panel against the frame.